


The Little Sister Alliance

by Tallian



Series: Miriam Langford [1]
Category: BioShock
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-23
Updated: 2013-03-23
Packaged: 2017-12-06 06:22:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 14,767
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/732420
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tallian/pseuds/Tallian
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When a Big Daddy dies and his little sister is left alone a mysterious young woman takes up the role of her protector. This woman, so intricately tied into both Raptures past and future must find a way to keep herself but now a little sister alive. Running into a host of characters, this is the first book in Miriam Langford's story.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Introductions

Tunnels, long dark desolate space after space, never ending, and around every corner was another sick twisted smile with those hooked hands that clawed after virgin flesh, desperate for blood, weapons and ADAM.

That foul yellowed slime that oozed from behind those yellowed hollowed eyes, it was everything here, Rapture, city of the uncensored life, was reliant on the stuff.  
And that’s were she lived, no it wasn't life, it was a slow death, naively struggling to just survive only to be taken down by invisible ghosts of the past. Survive, that was what mattered. Wasn't it?

Survive, escape, just to get out, to see the sun once again.

But there were things that she wasn't prepared to do, steps she wouldn't take, but those were few. 

She killed. 

She stole.

She murdered.

She survived.

It had been two months now since Rapture had truly hit rock bottom, and she in her torn and blackened shell had began to wander the streets of her former home. She was a woman, nothing more, from the hard line of her angled chin, to the gentle flick of her raven black hair, she was still a woman, still human, unspliced, and that was the way she’d keep it.

The rusty shaft of the pipe scratched at the hardened skin of her palms as she twisted it nervously. It was too quiet. The empty realm of the abandoned medical bay was empty and it shouldn't be. 

The woman crouched, waiting, her back pressed against the grimy wall, tensed and ready for the unmistakable sound of the dragging foot steps and confused mutterings in the dark. She needed the medicine, she couldn't live alone on her luck, she’d make a mistake sooner or later, and then she’d need what little this bloody district could offer her.  
She could smell the death on this place, the tiles below her feet was nearly always slick with blood, the screams providing a demented ambiance to the madness of the doctors and nurses that still roamed the wards. Corpses were left to rot where they fell, the flesh either falling in putrid slugs from the broken bones, or pulled in fist full’s for whatever foul purpose that the splicer could think up. 

She left the bodies alone, she couldn't salvage anything from a body that had been dead that long, it wouldn't be safe, it would be a stupid mistake to die from disease after surviving the splicing, the Big Daddies and the agents of the warring parties. 

A tiny clatter caught her attention, the crouched lower in an attempt to blend into the wall, then a noise which mad her blood turn to ice echoed down the dimly lit corridor. 

THUMP!!

It made the remainder of several discarded EVE syringes jump and rattle rolling on the tiles. 

THUMP!!

It was getting closer, the pounding foot steps were getting closer.

She got to her feet slowly, her heart beating through her ribs, she turned to the grate which lay three or so meters behind her, her escape route. She didn't run, she walked, running would be stupid, too loud, she'd be jumped upon in seconds and then be at the mercy of the metal monster that was making its way down the corridor.

“Look mister B”, she froze, her heart no longer beating, fear instead pulsing round her veins, “it’s a lady”.  
Shaking in terror she turned to face the owner of the voice. 

The glowing golden eyes stared at her in wonder shadows however masking every thing else, the enormous black outline of the footsteps stood directly behind the eyes. Her throat was dry and try as she might she couldn't bring her self to move, tiny light footfalls padded from within the shadows, a little girl emerged from them, black hair hanging filthy from an poorly tied ponytail, her little round face smeared in the grime of the blood and decay of the city, wearing a torn, blackened blue dress with a grey pinny, surprisingly, still tied round her waist by a neat perfectly formed bow.

The woman and the girl stared at each other, the woman frozen, the girl curious. The corner of her little mouth pulled into a slight curve, it took the woman a moment to realize that she was smiling. 

“Your like a momma” she said with a confidence and finality that hinted she meant it, the woman blinked surprise shocking her out of her fear for a moment.

“What?” she asked, she felt a new level of shock hit her as she heard her voice for the first time in months, it was deep and melodically, like her own mothers…

The little sister opened her mouth to answer, but an answer didn't come out, instead it was a scream. 

The rusted meat hook came whistling past her head, and struck the wall beside her. She ducked low, just in time to miss another flying hook, the Big Daddy was not so fortunate, the red razor sharp metal caught his left shoulder tearing through the rubber tubing. 

To her surprise blacked thick liquid started to ooze from the wound, like blood in long slow moving streams it rolled down the metal. The Big Daddy roared, pain and fury driving it to charge at what must have been a spider splicer. 

There was a great cloud of dust and smoke as the Big Daddy lunged down the corridor, she found herself thrown against the wall by a flying piece of shrapnel. Dazed, bleeding and confused, she tried to get to her feet. She slipped ending back down on the floor, blood or oil had slicked the floor. She was covered in it. 

The battle between the Big Daddy and the Splicer raged on, screams from both sides shaking the hall way. 

Just as she was about to make another attempt at getting to her feet another crash forced her back down to the ground, she was not alone any more, without warning the much smaller body of the Little Sister slammed into her, forcing the wind out of her. There was an almighty boom forcing rubble and sparks to rain down from the ceiling. 

Coughing and spluttering she tried to grasp what had happened, the corridor was now a mass of lose cables and cracking concrete hanging by the thinnest of metal supports, some where she could hear water, the battle it seemed was over, but neither side had won. 

The splicer lay broken and bloodied at the base of a mountain of rubble, and from within the rubble low groans where coming. 

She got to her feet, careful not to tread on the little sister that lay next to her, her neck twisted to an unnatural angle, slowly she approached the pile of rubble, her arm was broken that she was sure of, she carried it as best she could as she scrambled over the rubble. She didn't know why at first but she began to dig out the rubble, part of her just knew it was the right thing to do. Her fingers were cut as she gripped the crumbling slabs of plaster and fractured metal, but she kept digging. Suddenly a groan came from the pile and with an almighty burst of power a metal hand lunged out of the rubble seizing the woman’s hand. She screamed and tried to wrench herself free but the Big Daddies grip was like iron. It pulled her closer to the rubble, her ear grazing the sharpened surface of a broken pipe, then it groaned at her. 

“Prooooooooooooooooo…” it moaned, “…tect”.

The woman gaped, “Protect?” she whispered, another groan echoed from the pile, “Protect what?”

From behind the woman their came a quiet coughing, “Mr Bubbles?”

The creature groaned again, there came a desperate scrambling from behind her, the Little Sister who she had almost certainly thought dead emerged at her side.

“Mr B!” she cried trying to pick away the pieces of rubble.

The Big Daddy groaned once more, its voice a heartbreaking low and long moan, slowly another hand emerged from the rubble.

The Little Sister seized it immediately pressing the rough metal to her cheek, tears coursing down her dirty face, “No don’t go Mr B” she wept her word becoming lost to her sobs.

The woman’s heart wrenched, for the first time in what felt like a life time she cried for some one else, empathy for this little girl seizing her weak heart. 

The Big Daddy yanked the woman’s arm again snapping her from her silent tears, “Proooooooo... tect” it groaned.

The Little Sister turned to face the woman a tiny smile on her lips, “Mr B says your going to look after me” she sniffed shuffling closer to the woman.

The woman licked her dry lips, “I…” 

The rubble groaned.

She swallowed the fear that had risen in her throat and let a few more tears run down her face, “I will” she said softly, “I’ll protect her”. 

With her answer the woman felt the big daddies grip on her hand grow lighter, then with a mighty rasping breath it ceased and the woman knew the creature was dead. 

The Little Sister watched the woman her little hands gently reaching towards her face. She let her touch her face, her fingers danced lightly across her cheeks to her ears, where they gently tucked the straying strands of her dark hair behind her ears.

“You have hair like mine” the Little Sister smiled, showing a row of pearly white teeth. 

The woman nodded, “I’m Miriam” she said gently, “what’s your name?” 

The little sister frowned slightly, she took a few minutes to remember how to say it, “I’m… Alice”.


	2. Down Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Miriam contemplates just what she's let herself in for, while a new face notices the unlikely pair.

“I…I will, I will protect her”

The blood red light pulsed steadily, its rhythm mimicking Miriam’s heart beat. 

She blinked trying to straighten out her thoughts, how had she gotten here?

A quiet mummer from beside here caused her to drag her eyes away from the light, she was lying on an old stained mattress, her left arm resting on the tiny skeletal frame of a small child. 

A name rose in her head, “…Alice…”

The little girl shifted slightly but did not wake, instead she shuffled closer to Miriam’s chest twisting her tiny fingers in the woman’s dark hair and slipping her thumb into her mouth. Miriam lay still not wanting to wake the child from her peaceful slumber. With her eyes softly closed and that peaceful expression on her face, the little sister looked almost angelic, sweet and innocent, quite out of place in this dreadful city. Miriam let her eyes roam.

They were in a large room, probably one of the old offices, on three sides lay once white medical tiles, now a multitude of greys, blacks and browns were smeared over them. On the third side stood a massive window, the sea floor lay beyond, its strangely peaceful existence casting a deep green blue light onto their forms. A dark shadow passed somewhere above, a whale mighty yet graceful glided slowly past, its cry echoing through the glass.

A moment of calm.

A moment of peace.

It wasn't something Miriam had thought possible in Rapture, especially not with a Little Sister sleeping, nestled happily in her arms.

Miriam looked up, her other arm lay above her head, it was bandaged tightly in the dirty remains of a medical kit they’d found, the broken bone supported by a shard of a metal tied on with the bandages. 

It ached, but it at least was in little chance of getting any worse like this. She’d been lucky really, the bone had snapped cleanly at the lower for arm, it hadn’t needed resetting just securing, it would have been a lot worse if it had fractured, there would have been little point in trying to bandage it.

Attentively she tried to flex the fingers, a sharp bolt of pain shot down her arm and she winced.

“Momma?”

Miriam looked down to Alice, the little girl was watching her golden eyes still half hidden under heavy eyelids.

“I’m alright” Miriam said softly, she pushed a few straying strands of Alice’s hair from her face with her good hand, “go back to sleep”. 

Alice nodded sleepily a tiny yawn escaping her tiny throat, “Alright Momma” she whispered through the yawn snuggling up against Miriam’s chest again.

Within moments she fell back into dreams. 

Miriam felt a tear roll down her cheek, she suppressed the urge to cry out loud, though the silent sobs still forced her to let her tears fall.

What was she doing? She needed to survive, to live in this city she needed to move independently. Like she had what seemed like a life time ago.

Now… now she had a child to look after, constant fear if she turned her back on her for an instant, a burden…

Part of her knew she was getting too close to Alice, after all spliced or not spliced she was still a harvestable body, the little girl could turn that horrific needle onto her one day.

And what would stop her? Even now it lay only inches away from them, the shaft of the needle glimmering in the oceans light. If Alice did turn she couldn't fight back, the little girl had secured that the first time she’d called Miriam 'Momma'. Yes very shrewd of her, manipulative…cold…

Another surge of tears coursed down her face, she knew deep down in her heart that it wasn't true, and as Alice’s sweet little fingers curled further into her hair, and as her small fragile body pressed itself against hers she knew she would keep her promise.

She let herself drift back into sleep, her own eyelids becoming heavier, instinctively she pulled Alice closer wrapping her in her embrace as best she could, protecting her from the darkness around them.

***

A frown creased his forehead as he watched the woman fall back into sleep, the little sister in the crook of her body sleeping undisturbed. How different this strange little story was to the rest of the city. 

Unspliced. That must have been the key to it all. The woman hadn’t an ounce of ADAM in her. He could tell, she still had a pretty face for one, slightly dirty from the grime of her life here but handsome non the less. Second the little sister was still alive, if it had been a splicer down there the girl would already be dead.

A wicked smile spread on his lips, he could use these two, a trap for his enemies, a juicy bit of bait. 

But how best to utilize it? 

He gripped the heavy metal butt of the revolver in his hand, feeling the weight rest comfortably in his palm, ironic how it seemed to fit his grip so perfectly…

Silently he stepped away.

He’d wait a little more, see how this little saga played out, then he’d make his move, offer a friendly smile and a handshake.

Then he’d have them in his net.


	3. Spiders

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An unpleasant wake up call.

Miriam was awoken by Alice’s scream. 

Feeling the absence of the child’s body beside, her panic rose in her throat, she scrambled to her feet, ignoring the pain that shot up her arm. She desperately scanned the room, Alice was cowering in the corner, her hand pointing to a dark shadow that loomed in the opposite corner. 

It lay behind Miriam, slowly she turned, she could hear the rasping breathing bouncing off the tiles, her skin became slick with a cold sweat as she realized that no less than three sets of eyes were watching her.

Trying to sound as brave as she possibly could Miriam spoke, “Who are you?” she demanded.

A high pitched cackling laugh erupted from the corner, soon joined by two more equally maddened, “Your no Big Daddy!” it chanted, “I can smell you fear from here”.

Miriam glanced around her for a weapon, Alice’s needle lay not an inch from her foot. She looked back to the darkened corner, a glimmer of light from the sea outside illuminated the trade mark curved crimson hooks.

“Spiders” Miriam breathed, how could she take on three spider splicers with a needle?

Suddenly a terrible high pitched screeching cut through the air, they were climbing the walls. Miriam looked up desperate to catch a glimpse of their positions in the darkness, but all she could see was blackness and the slight glimmer of the tiles. 

She swept round bending briefly down to pick up the needle, then she ran as hard as she could for Alice who was still cowering in the corner. She skidded the last meter or so loosing her grip on the slippery tiles. 

Alice looked up at her, her eyes wide with fear, even their unearthly golden glow not detracting from the terror underneath. 

“Get down!” Miriam shouted, setting up her position just in front of her, the long shimmering needle gripped firmly in her one and only good hand. 

The room was still, the only sound Alice’s quiet sobs, Miriam tensed squeezing the needle slightly just trying to extract some small amount comfort from it. 

All of a sudden three black shadows dropped from the ceiling landing with a surprising amount of grace on the tiles. Now that their faces were illuminated properly Miriam could finally see her quarry for what they were, though after wards she was most certain that she’d rather have fought them in the dark. 

There were indeed three of them, a woman (if you could still call her that) flanked by two men, they were far gone, even for spiders. Both of the men supported foul twisted and contorted faces, the flesh appearing to have been pinched and pulled so much that the very structure of them seemed to have been broken so that the skin sagged from their bones. The woman was worse, at least the men still had faces, she just had a mass of scars, some of them still so fresh that even now they oozed thick black blood. 

Miriam held her gut, resisting the urge to through up, they smelt even worse, a mixture of rotting meat and unwashed bodies finished of with a gagging smell of old blood. 

None of the splicers seemed to notice Miriam’s disgust, in fact the woman offered her what Miriam could only guess was supposed to be a smile.

“Give us the Little Sister” the she splicer spoke in a high pitched squeal of a voice, like nails on a chalk board, it drove into Miriam’s skull pounding in a new kind of headache, “give her to us and we’ll let you go, won’t we boys”, she addressed the men behind her, both laughed wickedly. 

Miriam planted her feet firmly, readying her self for the fight she knew was inevitable, “No” she said simply her voice dangerously calm.

The splicer’s face twisted, the corners of what might have once been an attractive mouth screwing up so tightly that the scabs around them cracked open, small trickles of blood running down the remainder of her chin. 

“Not Wise” she hissed.

Without so much as a hand gesture from the female the men charged at Miriam. 

She felt terror explode in her chest, her heart beating like crazy behind her ribs. She managed to dodge the first swing of the crimson blade, ducking low and stabbing one of the male splicers in the thigh, drawing from him a satisfying scream, he dropped one of his blades as he pulled the needle free, Miriam caught it standing and narrowly missing a swipe to her neck from the second splicer. 

Instinctively Miriam used the blade in her hand to swipe at the second splicer, her stroke hit. The blade cut smoothly through the loosely hanging flesh of the spider’s neck, a high pressured spray of crimson blood soaked Miriam, once again she had to force down the urge to vomit as the splicer gasped silently before falling to the floor. 

The remaining male screeched madly at her at the sight of his fallen companion, putting all his might behind the strike he brought down his remaining sickle blade onto Miriam’s head, she managed to avoid his strike, at least initially, the blade missed her head but instead it sliced into the flesh of her upper arm tearing her shirt and the skin beneath. 

Pain and anger swelled in Miriam, white hot rage mixed wit the searing pain from her arm, it fueled her, gave her a strength she didn't know she had, it coursed through her veins.

Letting out a blood churning scream she brought the blade she held down upon the splicer’s head, she could feel it break through the bone, the crack seemed to echo up her arm until it bounced around her own head, the blade stayed embedded there as the splicer fell.

Miriam did not waist any time she turned her attention to the last splicer, the female, who stood somewhat shell shocked still in the middle of the room. Miriam glared at her picking up Alice’s blood soaked needle.

“Leave now” she sneered, “Or join your friends”.

The splicer hissed at her for a moment, then she looked down to the bodies of the male splicers, her dead eyes snapped back to Miriam’s “this isn’t over”.

“Get OUT!” the woman ordered enforcing the command by stepping a few step brandishing the needle. 

The splicer seemed to finally take the hint, with a sneer she leapt to the doorway scurrying out and to whatever masters she reported too. 

Miriam followed her swiftly to the door using one of the bloodied splicer blades to wedge the door shut, then the last of her strength leaving her she turned and slid down the all, terrified tears running down her face, her control lost to shaking despair. The horror of that crack, and the blood that dripped from her staining the floor anew. 

She bent her head low her tears running down her cheeks to pool amongst the blood on the floor.

She’d driven that blade into… she felt the very last of her resolve trickle away.

Two little bare feet appeared in her vision stood undisturbed by the blood, then two little hands cupped her chin pulling it up so she had to meet her eyes. Miriam looked, those round golden eyes looked into her grey ones deeply, it was strange almost as if they were not looking at each other but directly into each others souls. 

After a few moments when the girl was certain that she held the woman’s gaze she knelt and wrapped her fragile little arms around Miriam’s neck, burying her head in her shoulder.

“Its okay Momma” she whispered, “You protected me from the monsters”.

Miriam pulled the little girl closer to her, fresh tears swelling up.

“Always” she whispered back her voice breaking lost to her tears, she held the girl at arms length studying her innocent face now smeared with a mixture of both hers and the splicer’s blood, gently she tucked a straying curl of Alice’s hair behind her perfect little ear, the she drew her close once more cradling her in her arms, “Always”.


	4. Clothes Shopping

They sorted through the dusty fabrics, Alice playing with a ridiculously flamboyant hat that she’d found, the straw and blue ribbon remarkably intact despite the state of the shop. 

Miriam laughed as she watched the little girl dance around and around, bowing to imaginary passers by sweeping into a silly curtsy. 

It had been so long since Miriam had properly laughed, she had had trouble remembering how at the start, of course Alice amended that quickly. Her childish antics soon making the old nerve twitch again, spreading a broad smile on the woman’s face.

They were in the abandoned clothes shop for an actual reason, other than of course a much needed a moral boost, since the splicer attack it had become blatantly obvious to Miriam that they needed new clothes. Miriam’s were encrusted in blood, while Alice’s dress was getting so ripped it didn’t really come under the clothing subsection any more. 

Now that Miriam’s arm had pretty much healed, mainly thanks to Alice and a bizarre encounter with a medical station, it was a wise thing to get the skin washed, just in case of any infection. 

Alice had found the shop, a small two room establishment, a main purchasing area and a changing room that also housed a working sink, the main room had been trashed by the splicers but the changing room with some clothing hidden behind a curtain had remained remarkably intact. 

The whole pile was completely untouched, clothing still in plastic packed tightly into flat boxes, she’d been pouring through them trying to find something practical when Alice had found that wonderfully funny hat. 

Miriam picked up the clothes she’d found, walking over to her dancing little girl she knelt catching Alice’s arm as she darted past. 

She squealed, giggles erupting from her meager frame “Momma!” she faked a whine through her infectious laughter, “I was playing!”

Miriam felt another smile cross her lips, “but I have a new dress for you to try” she pouted.

Alice’s eyes grew wide as she looked down in wonder at the shiny packages, bouncing up a down she sat herself on Miriam’s lap and inspected the pretty blue package that Miriam had placed in front of her, a new ribbon neatly tucked inside. It seemed there were some good things about Ryan’s standardized dress code, everything came in sets. 

Miriam rested her chin on Alice’s shoulder wrapping her arms round the child’s waist, “what do you think?” she asked as the little girl slid the floral design onto her lap.

Alice ran tentative fingers across the clean cotton, “its pretty” she murmured.

Miriam chuckled, “do you want me to help you put it on?”

The girl nodded. 

Miriam gently pushed Alice of her lap and told her to stand, “Raise you arms” she ordered...

Miriam tied a little bow in the ribbon, “done” she told Alice who stood now dressed in her new clothes, she turned round staring down in silence. “Do you like it?” the woman asked, little pangs of worry rising in her chest, perhaps Alice didn’t like the blue…

She really didn’t need to worry, Alice launched herself at Miriam, “THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!” she shouted flinging her little arms round her neck. 

Miriam laughed hugging the little girl back, ‘I think she likes it’ Miriam said to herself.

***

Alice left Miriam to change into her own clothes, inspecting herself in front a dirty cracked mirror, turning to the left and to the right singing happily to herself. The dress had a blue floral design, with little prints of 'forget me not’s' covering the torso, a fixed woven sash separated the torso from the main skirt, also blue it fell just below Alice’s knees white lace lining the end of the fabric, it was the most beautiful dress she had ever known. Her Momma was so kind.

“That’s a pretty dress you have there”.

Alice span round to the door, a man stood there his eye’s glinting in the flickering shop light. He was tall, much broader across the shoulders than Momma, with a spiky rough chin and short cropped blond brown hair. 

“Who gave you that there dress little un?” the man asked taking a step forward into the shop, Alice saw a flash of light and her eyes shot to his hip, a revolver lay there buckled in its holster, Alice took a quick step back. She should call out for Momma, but this man wasn’t one of the monsters, he wasn’t sick with the sticky yellow ADAM. Something deep down inside Alice’s head was trying to get her attention, causing her to look more carefully at the man, he had a smile on his face, warm and friendly, but something wasn’t right, his eyes were as cold and calculating as… she couldn’t remember, why couldn’t she remember…

“Alice?”, her Momma emerged from the other room, Alice gaped at how pretty she looked now, her hair tied up out of her face and her new clothes on. Alice darted over to her hiding meekly behind her legs, one hand snaking its way up to intertwine in her Momma’s.

She gripped her hand firmly, squeezing it gently to assure her it would be alright. 

“Ah so you must have given her the clothes” the man said his fake smile spreading further across his face, his accent was funny.

Alice tugged on her Momma’s hand, she shouldn’t trust this man, monster he wasn’t, he was far worse. 

“Who are you?” her Momma asked without looking down at Alice.

The man strode forward a couple of steps extending his hand out, her Momma hissed at him like she had hissed at the spiders. The man stopped, a satisfyingly fearful expression on his fake face.

He coughed quietly letting his hand fall back down to his side, “Atlas at your service miss…”

Alice’s Momma looked at him with deep suspicion, “We have no need of your service” she said bluntly bending down and lifting Alice up to sit on her hip, Alice clung on tightly resting her head on her Momma’s shoulder. She felt much safer in her Momma’s arms. 

The man laughed, his eyes screwing up into tight slits, her Momma did not look amused, “forgive me lass” he sighed with the last of his laughter disappearing, “but aren’t you all alone in this hell hole, and not only that don’t you have a little sister with you? And as far as I can see you have no weapon”. 

Her Momma didn’t reply instead she fixed the man in a hard calculating stare. 

“All I offer lass is a trade of favours” the man was smiling again, it was still fake.

“What kind of favours?” her Momma asked.

“Simple…” 

***

“…I give you a means of protecting yourself and the child, and you grant me a boon in the future”.

Miriam eyed him skeptically, “I’m afraid I’m not about to through my lot in with you until you give me an idea of what this boon will be” she said coldly, she didn’t like this man one bit, the way he’d appeared out of no where and the way that he kept glancing to Alice. 

She’d originally picked the child up so she could run with her, because as stupid as it now appeared to be she’d neglected to bring a weapon.

Atlas shrugged his shoulders his manner apologetic, “Sorry lass won’t know that till I come across it”

Miriam glanced down to Alice, the little girl was watching Atlas, a deep frown furrowing her face, she needed to keep her safe, how could she do that without a weapon?

Luck wouldn’t get them both out of here safely.

“What sort of protection?” she asked slowly looking back to Atlas.

The Irishman (judging by his accent at least) smiled trying to look charming, “grant me the pleasure of you name first would you kindly?”, Miriam felt Alice shudder, “better for business if we’re at least a little bit acquainted.

She gently stoked Alice’s hair worried about what had made her shudder, “Miriam” she said flatly, “now explain”.


	5. The Deal

“Well that little one there must attract quite a lot of attention” Atlas smirked, he knew exactly how right he was making an obvious point of looking at still visible scar on her right arm, “I might just know a way of making that change”. 

Miriam looked at Atlas dubiously, that smirk he wore was unnerving her, he knew exactly how to string her along and what’s more he was enjoying it. She frowned, her grip on Alice becoming a little tighter.

“What do you mean?” she asked.

That smirk did not disappear, in fact it became more prominent, “I know of a doctor” he explained, “she takes a special interest in the lil’ sisters“, Atlas shrugged “and if rumour is to be believed then she might just have found a way to reverse the process”.

Miriam stared at him long and hard, she felt her deep distrust of him deepen still, he wasn’t telling them something, she was not a gullible woman, she would not be taken in by his charm coated words. The boon was also something not to be taken lightly, who knew what kind of ‘favour’ that would tie her to in future.

And yet what if it was true… a way to cure a little sister, she looked down at Alice. The child’s attention was no longer focused on Atlas, instead she was inspect a few straying locks of Miriam’s hair, wrapping it gently around her smallest finger then letting it spring back into a ringlet. She could really be her own little girl then, they could focus on getting out of this hell hole, otherwise they’d have to stay down here.

A cure…

“Where is this doctor?”

Atlas’ smirk turned into a smile, “Now we’re cooking, she moves around a lot, some people are saying that she has a base in the lower levels of the city”, Atlas waved a casual hand to their surroundings “however I have it on good authority that the good doctor’s been sniffing around here lately”. 

Miriam scoffed at the blatant way he gestured to the Medical district, “I’m sure you’ve noticed by now that ‘here’ isn’t exactly a safe place to be sniffing around in” she shuddered as she remembered the night the splicers attacked them, “I‘ll not put her in danger for a strangers word.”

Atlas nodded for the first time his face deadly serious, “I had noticed lass” he said bluntly, “and I would be coming with you”.

Miriam paused “wait you would what?”

“You have no weapon, you have a child to look after and there’s more than splicers that haunts these halls” Atlas held out it hand, Miriam looked at it dubiously.

Atlas sighed “look. Like it or not Miriam we need each others help, I don’t blame you one bit for not trusting me but you and your kid here are not going to survive down here without a few friends”.

Miriam slid Alice to the floor, gently stroking the child’s hair, she looked at Atlas her eyes hard and cold, “If you so much as harm one hair on this child’s head I swear weapon or no weapon I’ll make you regret the day you were born.”

The man nodded stiffly.

Miriam looked to Alice, the child looked back up at her simple trust and adoration spread across her face, taking a deep breath she steadied her nerves. She looked up determination now glazing her face ‘for her‘, she reached out and took Atlas’ hand in her own “Alright”.


	6. Dentists

Atlas was most definitely the leader in their strange group, he always walked at the point never letting Miriam anyway where that he hadn’t scouted first.

She didn’t like it one bit, sure it meant Atlas could deal with the splicers rather than her, but it also meant he might be leading them into an even bigger mess than they were already in.

His pace was also perishing, the man didn’t seem to stop for anything, Miriam could keep up with a little effort, but poor little Alice couldn’t. So they had now started a new routine, every time Alice’s legs started to get tired Miriam would let her have a piggy back until she was rested enough to walk on her own, of course Alice often fell asleep on Miriam’s back so the woman usually ended up carrying her most of the time anyway. 

Conversation with Atlas left much to be desired, any time she tried to speak she was usually answered with a harsh “shhhh”. Miriam understood the need for being quiet and normally she would remain silent but something was increasingly starting to worry her.

It was the amount of blood. It was every where, smeared all over the walls, sometimes spelling out grisly messages, and one name kept cropping up ‘Steinman’.

If Miriam had any extra senses she was sure they’d be twitching, she knew that name, and she knew that name had some gruesome stories attached to it. Many people turned during the splicing, it was the perfect place to breed madness, to breed it, then spread it. 

Miriam wasn’t sure how’d she’d survived it, for the most part she tried to forget, those memories were best locked away and left to rot at the bottom of the sea, something shouldn’t be remembered.

It was as they walked past one of the bloody murals that Miriam broached the subject of Steinman with Atlas. Alice was asleep in her arms and Miriam had managed to walk abreast with Atlas without objection.

“Who is he?” she whispered nodding her head in the general direction of the dripping writing.

Atlas shot her a silencing glare, he was met with her own hardened one, they seemed to wrestle with one another for a while, each one vying for the upper hand, Miriam’s determination prevailed. 

Atlas rolled his eyes, mouthing something along the lines of ’bloody women’, he scanned their surroundings, his eyes lit up slightly obviously finding what he was looking for, grabbing Miriam’s arm he pulled her towards a strange doorway, above it in big neon letters it read ‘Dentists’.

The doors slid open with a slight tremble, if Miriam didn’t know better she’d say the wood was shivering.

They stood in what must have once been the waiting foyer, a doorway at the back leading to a dentist’s chair, tiled and thankfully reasonably clean, a blood soaked dentists was the last thing anybody needed to see. 

Once the doors slid close Atlas spoke, “Steinman is the sick bastard that used to run this place” he ran a hand through his dirty blond hair, Miriam didn’t fail to notice the slight shake as he did so, “he went crazy just before the civil war broke out, started cutting people up muttering something about some bloody goddess”.

Miriam felt a chill run up the skin on her neck, so all those rumours were true, Steinman the chief surgeon, head honcho running the ‘beautiful people’ project, he offered to transform ugly people into walking works of art. Of course the works of art bit was more accurate than anyone could have imagined, by the god’s even the splicers looked better than his ‘models’.

“Do we have to go through this place?” Miriam asked fear rising in her heart as it so often did in this city.

Atlas however didn’t answer, his face was as white as a sheet, his eyes wide watching something behind Miriam. 

She turned. The glass of the office window was fogging up, wisps on concealing hot air coiling, forming clouds masking what lay behind the glass. A hand was pressed against the glass, it started to move across it, a trail of transparent glass laying behind it. 

Two maddened eyes lay beyond, they were focused on Miriam, staring directly at her from the darkness, unblinking, unmoving. She knew those eyes. Her head was screaming for her to run, fear, disbelief. Splicers didn’t hold grudges, did they? 

Miriam took a shaky step back, a hand gripped her shoulder, Miriam was just about to scream when Atlas’ voice whispered in her ear.

“Take the child into the vent by the far wall” he whispered, “don’t move too quickly, keep as calm as you can”. 

Miriam nodded not taking her eyes from the ones beyond the glass, slowly she crept towards the dentists chair, the grate covering the vent was not far beyond that. The eyes followed her as she moved never blinking, attention fully focused on Miriam.

Miriam stretched out her hand behind her, feeling the air for the dentists chair. 

Alice was starting to stir, “Momma?” she yawned.

“Hush child” Miriam whispered, her voice coming out harsher than she’d intended. Alice didn’t seem to mind though, she was far more concerned with the eyes. 

Miriam’s fingers brushed against cold plastic, it was the chair, she just needed to turn round and get into the vent. The eyes however wouldn’t let her go.

Miriam was frozen to the spot, she couldn’t move, her muscles seized up, she was closer to falling to the floor than diving for the vent.

Alice was wriggling in her arms, tugging at Miriam’s hair trying to get her to move. Miriam felt her head start to spin, recollection of that night when she and Alice had been attacked, the female splicer, she and found them.

Suddenly a bullet pierced the air, glass shattered and there was a long terrifying shriek. That snapped her out of it. 

She turned and ran the rest of the way to the vent, she threw herself and Alice into the dark alcove, ignoring the pain as her knees scraped the rusted metal. She could hear Atlas swearing over the gunfire as she crawled down the metal tunnel, Alice slung beneath her hanging from her waist much the way that Miriam had seen baby monkeys do when she herself was a child. 

The tunnel made a sharp left up ahead a steady glow shiny round the corner, Miriam headed for it, the sounds of the fight tearing through her ears. She rounded the corner just as a piece of what must have been piping crashed into the vent behind her. The vent opened up to another room, smaller than the dentists but still tiled with what appeared to be a desk and a few filing cabinets strewn around. 

Miriam looked down at Alice, “stay here for a moment” she said softly, she would check out the room first. 

Alice looked unsure, biting her lower lip and not moving. 

“It’ll be alright” Miriam tried to sound reassuring but was well aware how fake she sounded. 

Reluctantly Alice let go dropping to the floor.

Miriam offered her a weak smile, then she crawled forward. Apprehension filled her as she neared the opening, something didn’t smell right, and it wasn’t just the sudden blast of chloroform that burned at the back of her throat. 

The room looked empty, surprisingly tidy as well, no blood or filth on the walls, Miriam crept into the room, standing slowly. It was all clear and the door was locked.

She crouched looking back into the vent, “Alice? You can come out…” 

Some one grabbed her from behind pulling her to her feet, wrenching her arms behind her back, Miriam tried to scream, but as her mouth opened a filthy rag was stuffed in front of her.

The smell made her gag searing pain ripping down her throat, the rag was pushed tightly against her face making her breathe it in deeply. Her head was getting cloudy, her vision hazy, she tried to fight back kicking out behind her, but it unbalanced her making her stumble, breathing the rag even more deeply than before.

The last thing she heard was Alice’s scream echoing through the darkness.


	7. Tumbles and samples

“MOMMA!” Alice screamed scrambling after the disappearing hand of her momma as the splicer carried her off round the corner. She ran for the door but it slid shut and locked, she beat her fists against the metal, “MOMMA!” she screeched her voice becoming hoarse, the doors wouldn’t open try as she might to open them, she could hear someone crawling through the vent but she didn’t turn to look. 

“Lass?” it was Atlas’ voice, “What happened lass? Where’s Miriam?”.

Alice ignored him driving her fists against the door again and again until they bled, “MOMMA!”

Atlas came up behind her gripping her shoulder tightly and forcing her to turn and look at him, he looked at her his eyes searching her face “Who took her?” he asked sternly. 

Alice shook her head and turned her fists back to the door, still crying out for her Momma. Atlas grabbed her again pushing her up against the door, “WHO TOOK HER?!” he shouted gripping her arms so tightly her bones creaked.

***

It was dark cold, hands groped at her skin, pulling and prodding, testing its resistance. She couldn’t fight it, she may as well have been dead, gods knew that she would prefer it to this. Her mind started to drift, to float away from the feel of those icy fingers, to a time when she felt at peace, safe, fulfilled.

The damp earth clung to her bare legs, staining the skin in cloudy brown streaks, mixed with the green smears from the grass anyone would think she was trying to create some bizarre portrait. Of course those people were far to busy with other ‘pursuits’ to worry about a lone gardener scrambling around in the dirt behind a Red current bush. 

Miriam didn’t mind really, at least they were using the gardens, enjoying the tranquillity of them, hell if they started charging them for that then what was the point of them at all?

She attended the roots of the bush with great care, taking each sample with as little distress to the overall structure ass possible. She started by holding the root just below where she was going to cut firmly between her first finger and thumb, then careful not to tear any of the fibres she pulled the root till its stem was taut. Using her specially sharpened pair of shears she made a clean cut, the rootling was then placed into a glass tube and sealed before being placed in its own designated slot in a padded case. 

Miriam had been at it for a few hours now, Langford wanted seven hundred samples before the gardens closed, of course that meant she and her co-workers working flat out on their hands and knees in the mud for the simple satisfaction of helping the gardens run smoothly. Julia didn’t pull any punches when it came to research, even when dealing with her own family. 

Miriam put her final sample into its transparent prison and closed the lid of the case, she filled in the hole that she had dug to get to the roots, then sat back on the grass behind her with a great sigh, she checked her watch. An hour to spare, the good professor would be pleased. 

She rolled down her trousers ignoring how her muddy fingers stained the cloth, she didn’t bother putting any shoes on, the grass was softer than most carpets and she was muddy enough not to worry about getting her feet dirty. Slipping the shears into the pocket of her coat, she walked across the large quad to where a pneamo tube hummed quietly to itself, she gently placed the metal case onto the delivery platform and closed the lid, a panel appeared on the top and Miriam selected ’Langford’s Lab’ from the list. 

The hum grew a little loader for a few moments as the case was dropped down the pressured shoot, then it drifted back to the low hum as it slid open to accept a new item.  
Miriam turned away from it and took only a few steps before her short wave radio started to buzz, she retrieved it from her belt and pressed the green glowing button, her aunts voice rang through the speaker, “how many times have I told you that the pneomo tubes are not the way to send through samples!” 

Miriam felt a steady throb rise on her forehead, “as many times as I have told you that the tubes are perfectly safe for small trips” she sighed rubbing the dull ache that had just occurred on the back of her neck, she’d spent far to long crouched over those damned roots. 

“Hmph!” came the reply through the radio, “well at least you’ve finished earlier than the others, Damien still hasn’t collect half the samples I wanted from him and he’s in the grove!” her aunts voice sounded strained and uncomfortably dry. 

At once Miriam knew what was wrong, “you don’t have to go tonight if you don’t want to”

Her aunts reply came quickly, “Of course I do!” she snapped, Miriam heard her take a ragged breath and her voice was a little calmer when she next spoke “I would love the excuse to miss it but with Ryan and the rest of his cronies there I have to put in an appearance”

Miriam felt her aunts pain, she would hate the party, having to smile and make small talk with ‘The Best and Brightest’ of Rapture would put anyone off, but her aunt hated any such social gathering anyway, a party was the last thing she needed. 

“I’ll make sure to leave you something good to sink your mind into tomorrow” she promised trying to sound as reassuring as possible, “is there anything else you want me to do before I go home?” 

Her aunt seemed to mull over possible jobs for a moment and then resigned to a gracious defeat, “No go home and get some rest Miriam, it’ll be a long job getting all these samples processed, we might as well leave it for tomorrow”.

With that Langford ended the connection and the speaker went silent. 

Miriam re-secured the radio and headed back to the Red current bush to collect her shoes and bag. The gardens were quiet now, only a few straggling couples were left whispering softly to one another in the soft glow of the lantern light as the environment switched to night. Miriam slung her bag strap over her shoulder tucking her soft leather shoes into the coarse brown satchel, she wouldn’t need her shoes till she reached the residential district where she Julia and the other Arcadia scientists lived. 

She headed up the grassy slope to the entrance of the grove, the back of her legs ached a little, probably from all the kneeling, but she pushed on, it wasn’t a very long incline and she should be able to tackle it easily. A sudden THUMP shook the ground beneath her and she lost her grip on the slippery soil, slipping over onto her side, she huffed, if her clothes weren’t dirty before they certainly were now. 

Her head spinning slightly she looked up, a big metal man stood before her looking down with that strange absent look. Miriam gulped, she’d heard stories of people who had gotten in the path of Big Daddies, they tended not to survive the encounter too well. She got to her feet quickly, not lingering on the floor to get stepped on, slowly she backed up against the wall letting the Big Daddy pass. It groaned then plodded on not looking back. Miriam sighed and leant back against the wall relief warming her soul.

“Miriam!”, she looked to the top of the slope, two other scientists were approaching, Lilly who moved down the slope at a quick but cautious pace careful not to slip, and Damien who was running towards her a look of utter alarm on his face, he lost his footing a slid the last metre or so to slam into Miriam knocking her to the floor.

They both ended up in an awkward heap at the bottom of the hill, Miriam who seemed to have been cushioned from the worst of the impact by Damien’s aptly positioned frame laughed, the sheer hilarity of the scene tickling her funny bone. 

Lilly who was now fast approaching down the remainder of the slope was also laughing, “Damien you IDIOT!” she roared collapsing onto the ground beside their heap overcome by her laughter, “if the poor woman wasn’t alright before, she’s defiantly going to need help now!”.

Damien groaned rubbing his head, “Oh stop laughing!” he whined.

Miriam untangled herself from the human knot they seemed to have created to sit on the grass beside Lilly, “I’m fine, no thanks to that little roll down the hill” she smiled, she hid her new laughter behind her hands as Damien tried to brush most of the mud off his clothing, “are you alright Damien?”

Damien looked up at her “I’m fine” he said quickly not meeting her eyes.

Lilly who had mostly recovered from her attack of laughter had a wicked gleam in her eye, “You know Damien next time you want to roll around with Miriam you could ask her first”.

As the young man blushed furiously Lilly and Miriam both succumbed to a new fit of giggling.

“I wasn’t…” Damien stammered, but his words were lost to the women’s laughter, instead he held up his hands in mock surrender and launched himself at them both so they all landed in a new heap Damien lying happily on top of the two women.

 

The memory faded and the feel of the icy fingers returned, Miriam shivered as they brushed her right cheek, a hauntingly crooked voice clawing at her ears, “you’ve sent her Aphrodite” it whispered excitement rang through the obvious madness, “the canvas for my finest work is here”.


	8. Tenenbaum

Atlas ran like all of rapture was at his heels, he had to find Tenenbaum, she’d help, she had to. What use was that woman to him dead.

“Stupid bloody scientist!” he rasped as much to himself as to his only companion.

Alice lay limply in his arms, her thin pale little face lolling from side to side with the rhythm of his stride, her tiny hand hanging like a rag dolls.

He’d had to do it, the kid wouldn’t shut up, she just kept screaming for her bloody momma, she could have bought all those bloody splicers down upon them again. 

Atlas glanced down at her briefly, her delicate face with its pretty little nose was disfigured by the large purple swell on her left temple blood oozing out of a small slit at its mount, where the but of his gun had met it, he cursed himself under his breath, ‘I need her alive and well! Idiot’.

But he also needed Miriam alive and well, so he kept running. He’d run through half a dozen corridors by now, all with their own gruesome scarlet murals dripping from the walls, paved with corpse after corpse, but no Doctor, no crazy Kraut braud with her blazing pistol and half a mind to shoot anything taller than four foot. 

He needed to find that room, the big one with that metal balcony, but where was it!

With a ragged sigh he slowed his pace to a shuffle eventually coming to a halt outside one of those unused medical offices, he slumped and slid down the tiled wall, the results of his mad dash catching up with him.

The child’s body rolled lifelessly to the floor, her black raven like hair spreading out behind her head like a halo of glossy feathers. 

Atlas coughed and spluttered letting his head roll back and hit the tiles behind him, he watched the little body from the corner of his eye, his mind whirring as he studied the laboured slow pulse of breath rise in her throat. He crawled over to the body careful of the remains of several empty pistol cartrigdes that lay discarded on the floor, Alice coughed weakly, she seemed to be coming round.

Atlas roughly rubbed her cheek “Wake up lass”.

Alice murmured a protest which sounded like something along the lines of ‘momma’.

Atlas was just about to tell her to be quiet when there was a sharp sudden click next to his left temple.

“Doctor Tenenbaum I presume?”

***

“I said no Atlas” Tenenbaum repeated as she bandaged the wound on the little girls head. 

Atlas clapped his hands together, “please” he begged “she helped save this little sister, that’s got too count for something hasn’t it?”.

Alice who was still pretty comatose tried to bat away the doctor’s bandage with little success, Tenenbaum largely ignored her protests instead focusing her attention on tying the last knot. She did so tightly but with obvious care, she gently brushed a few straying locks of Alice’s hair out of the way before tucking the remaining pieces of cloth into the bandage. 

“I have never met sis woman, and I am not going to simply rely on your word” Tenenbaum stated stubbornly shooting Atlas a harsh withering glare.

The Irishman held up his hands in surrender, “fine listen to the kid then!” he sighed exasperated, as if on cue Alice stirred.

“Momma?” she asked in a whisper, her eyes flickered open, “Where’s my Momma?” she locked eyes on Tenenbaum and jumped to her feet running to the corner of the deserted office as far away as possible from the two adults. She was shaking with fear, holding out her tiny little hands to her face trying to hide behind them.

Tenenbaum tried to approach her slowly, Alice whimpered and shrank back further into the wall.

Atlas sighed running his worn hand through his hair, “I don’t understand it either doc” he shot Alice a dry look, “Why that little sister attached herself to Miss Langford like that…”

Tenenbaum’s gaze snapped to Atlas “Langford?” she asked slightly stunned, “Is she her…”

“Niece Doc” Atlas nodded, “don’t now how she survived down here so long by herself, must be something in the family”

Tenenbaum was silent, she appeared to be thinking, looking between Alice and somewhere off to the distance, Atlas waited patiently, like it or not he needed Tenenbaum, there was no way that he could take on Steinman and his cronies by himself. 

Hypocritical, insanely paranoid and difficult as the good doctor was, she was a bloody good shot with a pistol, he needed that if he was going to get Miriam out of there with all her essential limbs attached, then again even with Tenenbaum’s help that would be difficult. 

***

Alice peeked out behind her coiled fingers, that strange man was sat in the corner of the office, his pistol had been taken from him by the woman, he stared at her his eyes dangerously calm. Alice felt the bump on her forehead tenderly, he’d hit her so hard she’d slept, when she’d woken she was here in this office, far away from her momma, with that other lady looking over her and this funny cloth around her head. 

Alice felt a tear run down her cheek, she just wanted her momma, her momma would hold her in her arms and tell her it would be alright, and she’d believe, she snuggle against her momma’s warm skin and sleep safely not afraid of the spiders in the shadows. 

She wanted her momma. More tears flowed down her cheeks, she didn’t try to stop them instead she closed her eyes and pretended that her momma’s hand was gently brushing the tears away.

Her heart leapt as she felt a hand graze her cheek, she opened her eyes to find the other woman knelt before her, Alice didn’t flinch instead she stared at the woman unblinking, she begged her silently to help her momma.

Tenenbaum stood gently shaking her head, with a sigh that seemed to reverberate around her body “Alright Atlas, I’ll help you, but you will leave them both to me after wards”.

Atlas stroked the stubble on his chin, his plans and thoughts formulating for the next few months, after all it wouldn’t be long now till the bathy sphere would return, with a tiny nod he spoke “alright”, his eyes suddenly burned with a steely resolve “but I have a deal with Miriam, and trust me I will hold her to it”.


	9. Rescue

She felt the damp sheets below her and knew that they were soaked with her own blood, she felt it trickling down her face, her cheek was throbbing and she knew Steinman had started. 

She wanted to scream but found that her throat was to sore, like someone had run sand paper across it, pain jolted through her veins, pain like she’d never felt before, it burned her, set a fire under her skin. 

She opened her eyes and waited for her vision to clear, a bright white light shone above her, she blinked as it made her eyes water.

“Nurse it seems the patient is awake”, Miriam’s eyes snapped open, she stared her eyes wide with terror at the fuzzy outline of Doctor Joseph Samuel Steinman. 

Miriam felt the bile rise in her throat as the outline became more and more clear. He was just as tall as she remembered, though from her current perspective it was difficult to tell, but he much thinner, dangerously so Miriam could see the bone of his knuckles clearly through the dark red stains that covered his hands, his face was gaunt scarred from splicing and abuse, it once had been handsome, perhaps somewhere underneath all of that it still was. But it was Steinman’s eyes that really caught Miriam, they were a dark brown in colour with a slight hint of green on the left side, but they were sad, they would have been crying if this monster was still capable of the emotion, Miriam felt pity for them, for him. Deep down inside her she knew that this man was no longer Steinman no longer the man she had first met in that crowded party Mr Ryan had thrown that Christmas years ago, no that man that had gently lifted her chin to the light, who’d said “now even I can see the beauty of what is natural” was long gone. 

Miriam writhed desperately trying to loosen the bonds that held her down, she turned her face away from Steinman’s, she couldn’t bear to look at him.

“Now lets have a look at that face” Steinman’s voice rang through Miriam’s skull, she felt his slimy sticky hands take her cheek and pull her back to look at him, he was surprisingly gentle. “There” he said satisfied now that he could see her in the light again.

Miriam opened her mouth to speak, she didn’t know what she’d say but she had to try, Steinman was looking over to a tray of gleaming medical knives, inspecting each one and feeling its edge before nodding and placing it back on the tray.

“Joseph?” she asked gently.

Steinman froze, he was holding a large kitchen knife, he now gripped it so hard his knuckles were white even through the blood, he tensed his maddened gaze snapping back to Miriam. “Who are you?” he rasped holding the knife to Miriam’s chest.

Miriam felt her heart race, “Miriam…” she breathed “don't you remember me Joseph?” 

Steinman frowned moving closer, Miriam could feel his breath on her face, hot and damp smelling of medical drugs and alcohol, “Wait…” his voice broke, “…the woman from…the party…” he kneaded his forehead with his fists trying to remember, “…I remember…you!” he jabbed the knife into the medical table beside Miriam’s head, she flinched as the blade grazed her cheek. 

Steinman slammed his fist into the table on the other side, he was leaning over her now, Miriam tried to remain still, she took her breath as slowly as she could, Steinman blinked looking down at her neck briefly.

He moved his hand to it, it shook madly as his outstretched fingers approached the skin, Miriam held her breath, his fingers lightly traced the line of her artery up her neck to the line of her jaw, “…Miriam…” he whispered, a single salty tear ran down his cheek falling to her face, “…I tried to fight it…” he murmured his unshed tears crying out in his voice.  
Miriam looked upon him, his sorrow flowing through to her, she thought back to that night at the party, he’d looked so handsome, his immaculate brown hair slicked to one side, his combed moustache lifting slightly when he smiled. Her aunt had been invited to the party, she’d insisted that Miriam come along, dressed in a wonderful green gown with a silk shawl, she’d spent the night among Raptures great and good. 

Joseph had shot her glances all night over his champagne glass, Julie had kept her distance from him though pulling Miriam into one conversation after another about the gardens at Arcadia.

“Doctors” she’d said after the party, when they’d retired back to their shared house at Arcadia, “are too close to Artists to remain stable, better to leave them all to stew in their own madness”.

But during a rather extravagant toast, Miriam felt some ones hand slip into hers, gently it pulled her through the crowd to the back of the room where a floor to ceiling window stood, Rapture in all its glowing glory shimmering beyond. Everyone was focused on Ryan who stood in the centre of the room proclaiming the leaps in Rapture society that they had all made over the last few months. No body noticed the two of them standing there, the young Miss Langford and Steinman silhouetted by the radiant blue ocean.

“You look beautiful tonight” he’d said smoothly taking Miriam’s hand which he still held to his lips, kissing her fingers lightly.

She’d looked down her cheeks warming slightly with his outright affection and showy flirtations, that was when he’d lifted her chin and said ‘now even I can see the beauty of what is natural’. They’d talked for a little while, he’d continued to flirt with her relentlessly while the rest of the room was listening to Ryan’s speech, eventually though the crowd clapped politely and Julie had found them, dragging Miriam away on the late night excuse Steinman had left her with a parting kiss on the cheek.

She felt it tingle there now, as the shell of that man stared desperately at her tears flowing down his haggard face, “…Miriam” he smiled damply, “…ADAM was what we needed, it was the solution to our problems…but I was intoxicating, it required better work”.

Miriam shook her head, “look at what its done to you” she pleaded, “look at yourself, look at your work”

She nodded over to the dripping remains of a corpse that hung crucified above them, “you destroyed yourself”.

Steinman frowned, he got to his feet seizing up the knife that was still embedded in the table, without a word he turned away from her and started to sharpen the knife.

Miriam felt her heart stop as her turned to her, he looked at her hungrily madness in his eyes, “You say I destroy” he said slowly looking down at his reflection in the knife, “my goddess says that I create” he smiled.

That smile turned Miriam’s blood to ice, she tried to pull against her bonds, tried to pull away from him as he moved in closer. 

“Let me make you beautiful” Steinman whispered running the tip of the dagger down the right side of Miriam’s face, then with slow steady movements he slid the point into the flesh of her cheek.

Miriam screamed as the pain rolled over her, she tried to grab Steinman’s clothes but the bonds on her wrists were too tight. Blood slid down her nose as Steinman moved the knife. She writhed but it did no good, as the pain continued to rise she screamed again. The last thing she heard was the gunshot as the waves of pain grew unbearable. 

Darkness lay beyond and she submitted to it with out hesitation.

***

“Quick!” Tenenbaum shouted firing her gun again at the stumbling mad man, “Grab the woman and get her to the vent”.

Atlas ran towards the bloodied operating table and gathered Miriam up into his arms, she tried to say something but it came out a murmur, Atlas ran for the vent that they’d crawled through to get there, he slid Miriam into the darkness wiping away some of the blood on her face with the sleeve of his jacket.

Tenenbaum hurried quickly to join him, keeping her sights aimed at Steinman the whole time, the mad man clutched his stomach where the first of her bullets had hit. 

He looked up “NO!” he screamed as he saw Miriam’s hand disappeared into the vent, he tried to get to his feet but slipped in his own blood. Tenenbaum watched coldly as he pulled himself to the operating table, “You cannot take her away from me!” he shouted. He grabbed something from underneath the table.

Tenenbaum’s eyes grew wide “Scheisse!”, she turned and ran the remaining distance to the vent and the dumb founded Atlas, “He’s got a bloody machine gun!” she cried and slid into the vent pushing the unconscious body of the young woman down the shaft, her blood coated her hands by the time they’d reached the office. Alice was there waiting for them, she let out a little cry and flung herself at Miriam, Tenenbaum lifted her onto a table then rounded on Atlas.

“Now you leave” she held her gun up to his chest.

Atlas looked at the gun then Tenenbaum a deep frown on his forehead, he held up his hands “alright Doc, I’m going” he picked up his stuff that he’d left at the office, he paused by the door, turning slowly he fixed Tenenbaum in a withering stare “I’m going to make her repay that debt, mark me Doc all debts will be paid”.


	10. Glück für Überleben

She was lying on a medical table again, why was it Miriam always awoke in the same situation. 

Somewhere nearby water was flowing, it was cool, a pleasant breeze whispered into her ear. Someone was writing, she could hear the scratching of a pen.

Slowly she opened her eyes. Instead of the harsh glare that there had been before the tiled ceiling that Miriam could see was gently illuminated in an aqua blue light. 

Her head was fuzzy, she couldn’t remember what happened, she let her head roll lazily to the side towards the source of the light, it was a window, small in comparison to others in Rapture but still big enough to occupy most of the wall where it lay. 

She was low down in the city, where ever she was, she could see the sea bed on the other side of the glass, a bottom feeder was swimming around in the sand kicking up clouds of dust as it searched for food. Miriam let her eyes wander, the room where she lay was small, tiles covered the walls, they were clean unlike the ones that covered most of the medical district. There was a desk in the room metal, its surface scratched and well used, on it there lay a large messy stack of papers all heaped together in an organized chaos of ideas. The chair that should have been under the desk was missing, Miriam lazily rolled her head to the other side, in a somewhat useless attempt to distract herself from the pain that had started to throb from behind her right eye. 

The chair lay about a meter away from the edge of her bed, smoke coiled in the air above it twisting in dark mystical shapes, as a deep breath was taken the end of the cigarette glowed a warm ember. A woman sat on the chair, the cigarette was held casually in between her fingers seeming not to worry to any great extent if it fell to the floor. 

Miriam cringed as the pain grew worse, the skin on her right cheek and forehead now stinging enough to cause tears to fall, she tried to focus on the woman who seemed unaware that she was awake. She was thin, a little too thin to be healthy, her face was gaunt and she had the distinct look of someone haunted by their past, there were too many lines around the corners of her eyes from a life time of frowning, her hand trembled slightly as she drew in the smoke from the cigarette, she was staring at some distant object entrenched in her personal memories. Miriam could see what she was in every movement, every line, every pause of her body, she was a woman of regret a woman trying to live with herself and doing badly at both. 

A tiny dagger erupted from Miriam’s head and she let out a soft involuntary cry. 

The woman turned and caught her eyes.

Time seemed to slow, everything ceased to move in its proper sequence, the smoke from the woman’s cigarette drifted painfully slowly rising only slightly, hanging in the air long after it should have dissipated, the reflection of the water outside that should have been rippling on the ceiling was acting more like a thick slime moving in sickening waves.

Miriam felt her soul being inspected, turned over from hand to hand, the tiniest crack and blemish being measured and put into context, she was being analysed.

The woman remained still for only a moment, but Miriam knew that in that moment she had been taken apart and pieced back together in miraculous detail. She stood slowly keeping her stare on Miriam, pressing the end of the cigarette into a metal filing cabinet destroying the ember in a puff of glowing ashes, she crossed the short distance to the medical table where Miriam lay. Around her neck hung a doctor’s stethoscope, with a gentle touch the woman pulled the tattered edge of Miriam’s dress down so her upper chest was exposed. 

She inserted the ear pieces and pressed the cold metal disk onto Miriam’s skin, she shivered as the chill from the metal trickled over her chest. The woman frowned as she listened to Miriam’s heart, she counted silently, she nodded to herself and placed the stethoscope on the side of the medical table. 

Miriam waited patiently for her to speak first, the woman was looking her over, from head to toe inspecting her. 

When she did speak Miriam was surprised to find such a thick German accent.

“How do you feel?” she asked coolly

Miriam was a little taken aback at how a question she thought would imply some sense of caring could be said so coldly, she never the less replied with as much sincerity as she could muster, “I feel a little sore” she said her body sending another spike of pain to add to the effect. Wincing she looked around her again “where am I?”

The woman turned her back on Miriam “I’m sorry we did not arrive sooner”, she grabbed the chair she just been sitting on and pulled it closer to the bed.

Miriam frowned “What do you mean?” suddenly she remembered where she had been what had happened, a hand shot up to her cheek, ignoring the pain she ran her fingers across the skin, she found the stitched cut. It was large and pulsed slightly below her touch, her stomach turned over as she felt the sticky exposed flesh. 

“Steinman” she whispered horror making her throat horse.

The woman nodded “Yes, you’re lucky you weren’t killed” she sat down leaning back to contemplate her, “still I am sorry for what he did”.

There was a long silence, Miriam was still feeling the extent of the cuts, there were two one running from the bridge of her nose to her ear, the other slit the skin from the corner of her eye to the corner of her mouth. She was lucky really the cuts were not deep, they didn’t run through her eye, she wasn’t a vain woman but she knew she’d have the scars for the rest of her life.

The woman was watching her again, seeming to take a great interest in the slow realisation of where her scars were going to form.

Miriam swallowed her pride, she, whoever she was, was right. She was still alive and she could still look after…

She sat bolt upright and looked frantically round the room, her movement was so sudden the woman jolted in surprise.

“What is wrong with you?!” she demanded scowling deeply at Miriam.

“Alice…” she breathed “where’s Alice?” Miriam moved to get off the bed, the woman acted quickly taking hold of her shoulders and pushing Miriam back down firmly.

“She’s fine!” the woman said firmly, “You need to stay still or the stitches will come out!” she began inspecting the medical stitches in meticulous detail. 

Miriam did as she was told, in truth just sitting up had seemed to take lot more effort than it should of, she was weary, bone weary, she didn’t have the strength to fight back, “Who are you?” she asked the woman as she surrendered to her tiredness.

For the first time the woman smiled slightly, “You don’t remember me do you?” 

Miriam frowned causing one of the cuts to sting, “No” she winced looking closely at the woman’s gaunt face, “I’m sorry I don’t”.

Her smile became a smirk “I’ll admit that you did seem busy at the time”, satisfied that the cuts were clean and the stitching intact the woman sat back down on her chair, “That stupid party, you and Professor Langford came and mingled, though I have to say she looked about as interested in it as I was”. 

Miriam studied her face again, she’d only ever been to one party with her aunt while they were in rapture, could she have been there? She hadn’t been paying that much attention to anyone at that party except Steinman, perhaps in a glance across the room she may have seen her, but she couldn’t for the life of her remember her name.

“Brigid Tenenbaum” the woman said solemnly, her good mood disappearing, “and you are Miriam Langford, and you seem to have a strange Glück für Überleben”

“Pardon?” Miriam asked

“Glück für Überleben, luck for surviving” Tenenbaum crossed her arms and lent back, “you survived a Big daddy, a little sister adopted you, you survived an encounter with one of the most dangerous men in rapture and you haven’t so much as touched one ounce of ADAM”

Miriam was silent she had no explanation.


	11. Epilogue

The beam creaked below her as her weight shifted, she checked the splicer she’d been watching but to her relief it seemed unaware. Again she settled her body for the long wait ahead of her.

The docks were quiet, only the gentle lap of water on the metal rusting walkways echoed through the dead space, it was almost peaceful, the reflections of the leagues of water that stretched above her casting beautiful rippling patterns upon the floor. 

The change in Rapture was bizarre really, from the place of terror that she had known only six months before to this strangely serene echo of a city. Of course it wasn’t always like this, there were still those moments of utter terror as Splicers appeared in their ‘hunting parties’ stalking the halls, then she would fight, firing her pistol at each one, usually catching it in the shoulder or if she was lucky the head. 

She had Tenenbaum to thank for that transformation. Ever since she’d awoken in the Doctor’s ‘sanctuary’ the change in her own personality had become a constant source of surprise. She’d stayed a top that table for a week, Tenenbaum had put it down to the amount of drugs Steinman had pumped her with, Alice had been allowed to come in and see her after a few days. 

As the office doors had slid open she’d sat up thinking that Tenenbaum was returning from one of her jaunts round the city but instead she’d been leapt upon by a girl she had to take a moment to recognise. Brigid had warned her in advance that she had extracted the slug from Alice, but she would never have guessed how much the absence of the little parasite could have changed her. 

Her eyes as they’d looked up at her watery with tears were a hazel brown, tiny and perfectly round, her skin was no longer a sickly grey, it was a pale peach with rosy cheeks, and her hair that she was almost certain had been black had been washed and combed back to reveal that its true colour was in fact a light brown. 

After the realisation that the little girl that was clinging to her neck was her own little Alice, Miriam had wept her own share of tears, and there they had stayed for the remainder of Miriam’s stay in bed. Brigid had found them their when she had finally returned, Alice sat across Miriam’s lap talking to her animatedly about all the little sisters that were playing outside. That was when Tenenbaum had started to trust Miriam.

For the few days after she’d woken the Doctor has treated her with a great deal of distrust, questioning her about her actions with Atlas and Alice and what she remembered of the encounter with Alice’s Big Daddy, whenever she wasn’t asking questions she was treating her much like an inconvenience that someday soon she would deposit as far away from her as the sea would allow.

After Miriam had finally been able to get out of bed Tenenbaum began her ‘training’.

It appeared much to Miriam’s surprise that the Doctor was a crack shot with a pistol, she could shoot the weapon from a splicers hand at twenty yards, and this knowledge she began to pass on to her. They had started in the alcove just outside the ‘sanctuary’. Tenenbaum would sit an old tin can at one end, stand Miriam at the other and tell her to shoot. 

It had taken a long time for her to actually hit the target, it took even longer for her to do it at any great speed, Brigid would drill her making her stand with her back to the target then ordering her to turn and shoot. Many of her attempts were met with “Scheisse!”, or “Keep your eye on the target” but gradually she got better, in fact she began to get good.

It was while she was taking out the stitches that Tenenbaum explained her plan to Miriam.

“You know there are many more little girls in rapture like Alice” she had said carefully picking out the last of the thin wire, said little girl was sleeping in Miriam’s arms soundly her little hand clasping her momma’s tightly just in case she slipped away again. Miriam had nodded absently she was aware there were others, how many she was not sure. Tenenbaum dabbed the scars mopping up the tiny droplets of blood that dotted the skin where the stiches had been, “I have been attempting to change many of them back since zee war” she explained going over to a small cracked basin of warm water where she washed her hands, “but there are too many”.

Miriam had stroked Alice’s hair absently watching Tenenbaum’s back as she put the various tools to one side, “You want me to help” she said solemnly.

Tenenbaum nodded, “exactly” she walked over to a small cabinet, taking a small grey key from her pocket she unlocked the cabinet.

Miriam leaned forward slightly trying to catch a glimpse of what Brigid had retrieved, she saw a strange red glow coming from her hand.

Tenenbaum turned slowly holding the glass heart shaped vessel carefully in her palm, when Miriam saw it she had gasped holding Alice that much closer to her chest.

 

Miriam sighed flexing her hand watching the new minor muscles clench under her skin, how normal it seemed even though the plasmid was pulsing round her veins, swimming among her blood bewitching the cells that lay underneath into new shapes. She closed her eyes pressing her fist against her lips, her eyes knitted together into a deep frown, how she hated the ADAM that lay under her skin, the craving that came whenever a little sister lay before her helpless. 

But she resisted just like Tenenbaum did, they were not splicers they were still human, the plasmid allowed them to return the little sisters to girls, nothing more, no fire, no lightning, no inhuman powers, just a rescue mission. 

Brigid reassured her that she could survive without an updated supply of ADAM but the need still twisted her gut. 

A low rumbling echoed up from the lapping waters, Miriam shook herself from her musings and looked down to the shadows below, to her terror the splicer was gone, instead a man stood there, a man she recognized as one of Atlas’ cronies though his name escaped her. He was staring at something just below where she knelt.

Suddenly she heard it, ragged breathing the kind that could only mean a spider splicer, she dare not move, the terrible hooks slid through the grate narrowly missing her by inches, careful not to make any sound Miriam cocked and aimed her pistol ready to shoot incase the splicer became aware of her.

She needn’t have bothered. The man below her was the real target. The splicer leapt for him landing only a meter away, the man backed up slowly crowbar raised above his head, the splicer jumped cleanly landing before the man. Suddenly the man’s offensive disappeared and he began to back up even faster.

Miriam didn’t have a chance to really take in what was happening as suddenly the structure she was knelt on began to shake. She used her hands to steady herself, she stared down between her hands to the churning water. 

She blinked trying to clear her eyes, for surely they were playing trick on her. She couldn’t be seeing what she thought she was seeing, it just wasn’t possible…

A bathy sphere!

A god damned Bathy Sphere was emerging from the water!

There was a guttural cry from below, she looked finding Atlas’ crony falling to the grated floor his blood spilling to the sea water below. The splicer had already moved to the bathy sphere, she let out a piercing scream clawing at the side of the sub. 

Without thinking Miriam cast around her for something to throw, she spied a iron bolt worked loose by the splicers no doubt, she threw it at the splicer. It caught the foul thing on the back of the head producing a satisfying crack.

Miriam sprang to her feet as the things gaze snapped to exactly where she was hiding, as fast as she dared she started to run for the vent she’d come from ducking past the loose cables and discarded work tools. All the while she could hear the terrible scraping coming from behind her; the splicer had spotted her for certain and was now racing after her. She tried to pick up her pace, pushing all that she had into reaching that vent.

Suddenly she heard the creature stop.

Curious she turned back slowing to a stop a few meters from the vent. The splicer was crawling along the ceiling, it was stalking something, heading over to the flickering lights of the distant stair case, and there it dropped gracefully landing in the flood light. Something or perhaps someone caught Miriam’s attention, the briefest of movements from the shadows by the massive windows. 

Gunfire stole her attention however and she shot into the vent. The splicers mad screams echoed along the passage behind her, but she didn’t stop until she reached the meeting room bursting out of the vent at high speed almost taking down the woman who stood within.

“Sorry” Miriam gasped trying to refill her lungs as Tenenbaum picked herself up from the floor brushing down her clothes.

“What zee hell is going on in the port?” she asked helping Miriam to her feet.

Miriam explained the arrival of the bathy sphere and the splicer then the gunfire. Tenenbaum listened her frown deepening with every detail.

“Atlas?” she asked when Miriam mentioned it was one of his cronies by the sub, Miriam nodded.

“We should see what he’s up to” the doctor concluded picking up her revolver from the table and checking what ammo she had in there. 

Miriam followed her out of the office they had set up base in grabbing the extra bullets she had found and stuffing them into her pockets, she would probably need all the ammo she could carry when it came to Atlas.

She’d look back and smile at this moment, since at the time she’d never guess at just how right she could be, or how much the person that had emerged from that bathy sphere could mean for her and the rest of this dead city.


End file.
